She had not, as yet, ever been allowed to go out alone in this way; but Mrs. Huntress could not accompany her that day, having an important engagement with some friends; but she knew her driver was perfectly trustworthy, he was very fond of the young girl, and she was sure that no harm could befall her, so the desired permission was given, and the youthful maiden drove off in high glee, and full of importance at being permitted to go by herself to the great metropolis.
The Fulton Ferry was safely crossed, and the carriage was rolling slowly up toward Broadway, when Gladys’ attention was arrested by a group of street gamins, who had surrounded a boy whom they appeared to be jeering and tormenting in a cruel manner, and who seemed completely dazed by his position, and greatly distressed by the ill-treatment to which he was subjected.
He was a peculiar looking boy, having a slender though perfect form, a delicate, rather aristocratic face, and a finely shaped head, crowned with masses of light, waving hair, in which there were rich tints of gold and brown.
He was very pale and his full, large blue eyes had a strange expression in their depths—half wild, half pathetic—which went straight to our young heroine’s heart.
He was neatly but plainly clad, though his garments had become somewhat disarranged by the rude handling of his tormentors, and he was making ineffectual efforts to recover a very good-looking straw hat that had been snatched from his head and was being ruthlessly tossed about by the vicious gamins, who were triumphing in his distress with a sort of fiendish joy.
“John, what are they doing to that poor boy?” Gladys asked, leaning forward, and speaking to the coachman.
“They’re a set of imps, miss, and as usual up to some of their infernal tricks,” replied the man. “It looks to me as if the lad is half-foolish, and they’re making game of him.”
“It is a shame,” cried the little lady, flushing indignantly. “See what a nice-looking boy he is—so different from those coarse, rude children. Stop John, and let us help him to get away from them.”
“Indeed miss, I can’t: it wouldn’t be at all proper,” returned the dignified driver. “It’s the business of the police to look after such cases, not for a young lady in your position.”
At this instant a mischievous ragamuffin seized the strange lad by the hair, giving it such a savage pull that he cried out with fright and pain, while a shout of mocking delight rang out from the motley crew about him.